y, "is just this:
let me do your thinking for you--even your patriotic thinking--for the
time being. Do you get me? Don't run off and do anything foolish."

"Is it foolish to fight for your country?" asked Tom doggedly.

"It might be," retorted the scoutmaster, nothing daunted.

"I'm not going to stay here and see people drowned by submarines,"
muttered Tom.

"You won't see them drowned by submarines as long as you stay here,
Tomasso," said Roy mischievously. He loved to make game of Tom's clumsy
speech.

"You know what I mean," said Tom; "I ain't going to be a slacker for
anybody."

"You might as well say that President Wilson is a slacker because he
doesn't go off and enlist in some regiment," said Mr. Ellsworth; "or
that Papa Joffre is a coward because he doesn't waste his time with a
rifle in the trenches."

"Gee whiz, you can't say _he's_ a coward," exclaimed Pee-wee, "because I
saw him!"

"Of course, that proves he isn't a coward," said Roy slyly.

"There's going to be work, and a whole lot of it, for every one to do,
Tom," continued Mr. Ellsworth pleasantly. "There is going to be work for
old men and young men, for women and girls and boys--and scouts. And
being a slacker consists in not doing the work which you ought to do. If
a girl has a flower bed where she might grow tomatoes, and she grows
roses there instead, you might call _her_ a slacker.

"The officials in Washington who have this tremendous burden on their
shoulders have told us what _we_, as scouts (Mr. Ellsworth always called
himself a scout), ought to do. They have outlined a program for us. Now
if you run off and join the army in the hope of doing a man's work, why
then some man has got to knuckle down and do your work. See?"

"I'm sick of boring holes in sticks," grunted Tom.

"Well, I dare say you are. I never said it was as pleasant as eating ice
cream. What I say is that we must all knuckle down and do what we can do
best to help defend Old Glory. And we can't always choose our work for
ourselves. I'm going to stay here, for the present, at least, and keep
you scouts busy. And I don't consider that I'm a slacker either. If you
all stand by me and help, I can be of more service right here, just
now, than I could be if I went away."

"Then why does the government have posters out all around, urging
fellers to join the army?" said Tom, unconvinced.

"There are fellers and fellers," said Mr. Ellsworth, mimicking Tom's
pronunciatio